John Lannan: The Best Pitcher You've Never Heard of

When John Lannan took the mound for the final time last season, he was hoping to put an exclamation mark on his rookie season. He ended up allowing three runs and seven hits and lost to the eventual World Champion Philadelphia Phillies.

It turns out that game was a microcosm of Lannan’s first year in the major leagues.

In 2008, there were 84 National League pitchers with enough innings pitched to qualify for last season’s ERA title. John Lannan, among that 84, finished dead last in run support.

The Nationals gave him just 2.4 runs per game of offense. Kind of makes you wonder why Lannan even bothered to take the mound, doesn’t it?

He knew that just one bad pitch in a game would lead to a loss, and Lannan was right more often than not. Rookie pitchers have enough to worry about without having to try to make every pitch a perfect one.

But John Lannan didn’t wilt under that pressure.

He thrived.

In 31 starts, he allowed three runs or less an amazing 19 times. Lannan gave up just three runs in four starts and four runs in four others.

If a pitcher gives up three runs or less in a game, he should win the majority of those starts; John Lannan gave up three runs or less in 23 of his 31 starts and yet lost 15 times.

But perhaps even more impressive, Lannan pitched either six or seven innings in all but seven of his starts.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that John Lannan led all major league rookies with 21 quality starts (6 or more innings, 3 runs or less allowed). What is surprising, though, is that he finished 8^thin the entire National League, bested only by Johan Santana, Tim Lincecum, Ricky Nolasco, Brandon Webb, Jake Peavy, Dan Haren, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt.

Pretty good company, don’t you think?

If the Nationals had just an average offense, Lannan would have had a superb rookie year.

Assuming the Nationals had scored as many runs per game as the Colorado Rockies (who were ranked 8^th out of 16 National League teams), they would have plated 4.6 runs per game.

At that rate, John Lannan would have been in a position to win 26 times in 2008. Taking into account the number of innings pitched, runs given up, etc., his record would have been somewhere in the vicinity of 15-9.

He’s that good.

The 23-year-old New York native was an 11^thround draft pick out of Siena College in the 2005 June amateur draft. He pitched well in college, going 17-8, 3.52 over three seasons.

He moved quickly through the Nationals’ farm system, going from short-season Vermont to Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia in less than two years.

He was named the Nationals 2007 minor league pitcher of the year and has a career minor league record of 21-16, 3.89.

TSN.ca is very high on Lannan. Here is his scouting report: “Lannan has a quality left-handed arm with lots of savvy and displays a sound arm capable of logging a major amount of innings.  He needs to miss bats a little more often at the major league level, though. If his control is off, he can’t use his ‘sheer stuff’ to get by. John Lannan should become a quality middle-of-the-rotation starter.”

They are right about Lannan not having the “stuff” to make up for his mistakes. His fastball rarely tops 90 mph and he strikes out just five batters per nine innings. He tends to walk too many batters, averaging 3.7 per nine innings last year. However, he makes up for those walks by allowing just eight hits per nine innings. His WHIP (number of base runners per inning) is a very good 1.37.

By comparison here are some current and former Nationals’ starters and their WHIPs: Daniel Cabrera (1.55), Scott Olsen (1.45), Tim Redding (1.50), Odalis Perez (1.35) and Shawn Hill (1.46).

John Lannan is the best pitcher that no one has ever heard of. If he had played for the Yankees, he would have won 16 games and been inundated with accolades-a-plenty.

But he ended up being a rookie on a 102 loss, dead from the neck up, last place team.  I doubt his name has ever been uttered on SportsCenter (dah-dah-dah, dah-dah-dah).

But that’s about to change. For the first time since coming to Washington, the Nationals are a team with potential.

Lannan is the ace of the staff at 24. Scott Olsen, also just 24, already has 31 major league wins. Shawn Hill is just 27 and could be the best of the bunch if he can stay healthy. Jordan Zimmermann, currently ranked as the 41^st best prospect in the major leagues, is 23 and has jumped from Division III college baseball to the Nationals’ major league camp in less than 2 years.

And don’t forget that the Nationals have this June’s number one pick in the amateur draft and will draft-unless a meteor strikes Southern California-Steven Strasburg, who most believe will be in the rotation by September.

Fastballs that touch 101 mph and knee-buckling curves tend to get you to the major leagues pretty fast.

It won’t be long before the Washington Nationals go from pretender to contender.

And John Lannan will be leading the way.